Treacherous Commitment
by Bittersweet Revenge
Summary: My first screwed up attempt to a 'slashy darkfic' in which Severus kidnaps Harry at the end of his seventh year to give him to Voldemort, to try to get back into his circle of Death Eaters because he is terrified of seeing his master regain power [SSHP]
1. Default Chapter

Title: Treacherous Commitment  
  
Author: Bittersweet Revenge  
  
Summary: My first screwed up attempt to a slashy darkfic in which Severus kidnaps Harry at the end of his seventh year to give him to Voldemort, to try to get back in his circle of Death Eaters because he is terrified of seeing his master regain power.  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Gender: angst/slash  
  
Couple: Harry/Severus  
  
Disclaimer: The ever-present general apology/warning that I am using someone else's characters, that I am not making any money out of this, and that I acknowledge the original author, J.K.Rowling. --  
  
A/N: This is not going to be a long story. There will probably be less than ten chapters... I think.  
  
Chapter 1:  
  
I watched helplessly as Harry Potter, son of my departed nemesis James Potter, the famous 'Boy-Who-Lived' who had momentarily made us think the Dark Lord was no more, grew stronger and stronger under everyone's vigilant gaze.  
  
His true training began at the beginning of August, a month before he started his sixth year with the rest of the 'normal' witches and wizards of his age.  
  
I immediately noticed the drastic changes that molded his soul into a modern fighting machine deprived of feelings and sanity. He hid everything very well, of course, but I knew what was happening. I was his Occlumency teacher, after all. He didn't know that I pried in his mind once or twice in every class I gave him. I did it very discreetly, gathering information piece by piece, discovering the image the abnormal puzzle of his mind truly gave out. And I was horrified.  
  
This boy, this child I despised so much, was not at all what I had expected him to be.  
  
First of all, he was a wrecked soul. He was constantly haunted by the deaths he hadn't been able to stop from happening and was persecuted by the thought of not being able to do anything if it happened again. He was particularly worried about Hermione Granger and the overpopulated Weasley tribe.  
  
The death of the loathsome Sirius Black had a particularly strong effect on him. He was equally abashed when Cho Chang, a Ravenclaw in her final year, Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, two of his roommates, died in front of him in the middle of his sixth year when Death Eaters attacked Hogsmeade to prove to Dumbledore that Voldemort was truly back and would stop at nothing to achieve their ends. Harry spent a month in the hospital wing when that happened. Wouldn't eat or talk to anyone, just staring out his window, a vacant look on his face, unable to forget the dead students' faces. Molly Weasley was worried sick about him.  
  
Dumbledore doubled his Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, stopped his Care of Magical Creatures and Divination classes and used that time for intensive charms courses that Aurors from the Ministry gave him. But it didn't stop there: he also had the permission to visit the restricted section in the library and did so every night around three o'clock in the morning, reading books on the Dark Arts... and practicing certain illegal curses. The Unforgivable Curses were only a minor part of them.  
  
I could see his thoughts in Occlumency class and I knew he practiced the cruciatus curse only for one person: Bellatrix Lestrange, his godfather's killer.  
  
I talked to Dumbledore about his learning the Unforgivable Curses but he actually seemed tolerant with what was happening. It is when he told me this that I saw clearly that he had changed drastically. Seeing more students die just like that in Hogsmeade, I think something clicked in his mind and he understood. He stopped placing Potter's personal life above everyone else's happiness. He started thinking differently, started training the Potter boy to destroy the Dark Lord, thinking he should have started long ago. His personal life had no great importance compared to the whole Wizarding population. That is the main thing that clicked in his mind, I suppose. Yes, Dumbledore liked the boy but he definitely decided to place the rest of humankind before him after seeing more people die and more families be destroyed. And for the first time in my life, I sympathized with Potter's situation. Forced to learn to fight the most dangerous wizard of all time and abandon his life for this.  
  
I watched as Harry Potter became a rather powerful wizard. Not that he wasn't before, of course, but there was still a very big difference. The boy that had arrived at Hogwarts seven years earlier didn't know what a killing curse was, even less how to produce one.  
  
Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger didn't notice anything as his humanity was destroyed by the inside, being buried under Dark Arts. He didn't exactly succumb under them, he simply became... Dumbledore's puppet. The Wizarding world's only defense against Lord Voldemort.  
  
He finished his sixth year with a rather violent encounter with Lucius Malfoy and the rest of the Death Eaters that had escaped from Azkaban. Everyone found it was safer that he stayed at Hogwarts for the summer and so the vacations he was so looking forward to were brutally cancelled and he was buried even deeper under mountains of defensive and offensive spells to learn.  
  
Nothing really different happened during his last year at the school. At first, I didn't want to accept him in my advanced potions class but Dumbledore forced me into it. Voldemort's attacks became more and more frequent and I became not frightened, but terrified.  
  
My old master was regaining power, and I was the traitor stuck on the wrong side. I was incapable of taking a walk on the grounds without feeling watched, without feeling guilty, without knowing that Voldemort wanted to kill me and that I should have never left the Dark Side... the right side. Back then, I had been the eavesdropper that had heard that crazy Sibyll Trelawney tell the prophecy to Dumbledore in the room above the Hog's Head. Evan Rosier had been with me, waiting outside the pub and when I came out, I blindly told him everything I had heard. The part of the prophecy I had heard, that is.  
  
We went back to our Lord and Rosier told him when we had heard. It is only after that incident I saw in what kind of danger I was in. The one with the power to destroy the Dark Lord was coming! Doubt kept on tackling me and so I decided to leave. But one person could blow my cover away, and this person was Evan Rosier. He would know the reason of my departure, and so I needed to kill him. I invited him at a precise location, very well aware that Aurors were about to arrive. He was killed, I fled.  
  
I went to Dumbldore first, then to the Ministry, told them everything I knew, cleverly leaving out the fact that I had heard the prophecy.  
  
My life restarted, this time of the other side of the wizarding world. Voldemort was supposedly killed, my life went on... Until I learned the Dark Lord was still alive. And that my survival, along with every other wizard, depended on Harry Potter.  
  
It disgusted me.  
  
And so a plan began growing in my mind, a very simple plan, at first. This plan was to get back to the Dark Side. Then my goal changed a little and I decided the only way I could live without feeling guilty, feeling watched and constantly being on my guard (which was actually not living at all), was to return to my master and beg for forgiveness. I knew the last part wouldn't work and that I would die on the spot and so I kept on thinking of a plan.  
  
And this plan showed up right in the middle of one of an Occlumency lesson with Potter, when I realized that he was my ticket to freedom.  
  
If I got him to Voldemort, everything would be forgiven, no? There was no proof that it would work, but it was worth the try. What could I loose? The worst thing that could happen was that I would be killed and freed from my cursed life, anyways.  
  
The Occlumency classes became less frequent but more intense. The boy was getting better and easily stopped me from entering his mind. I couldn't know what he was thinking anymore because I needed to focus all my strength in keeping him out of my mind. I couldn't keep all of my memoirs in a pensieve and I had the distinct impression that he started catching glimpses of my thoughts and memories. I saw it from the smirks he threw my way before leaving the class.  
  
Voldemort attacked the Ministry around Easter. Many innocent Witches and Wizards were killed. Fudge went mad because of a cruciatus curse Bellatrix Lestrange performed on him. He was sent to Saint Mungo's. There won't be a probable recovery for him, I'm afraid.  
  
There were no supplementary deaths at Hogwarts. Harry and the others graduated, received their diplomas and everything was settled.  
  
Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and a few others joined the Order of the Phoenix. Harry was obviously joining as well. He was supposed to start his Auror training in September, but I knew I had to act before that.  
  
I needed to capture him during the summer. I needed to return to Voldemort.  
  
He looked at number four Privet Drive with disdain. The famous Harry Potter lived here? In this pitiful muggle house?  
  
Severus sniggered, rolling his eyes. This was going to be easier than he thought.  
  
He walked up to the door and pulled out his wand.  
  
"Finite Fidelius!" he whispered, touching the door before saying the password.  
  
A flash of blue light covered the whole house and disappeared. Severus' almost inexistent smile widened. He had overheard McGonagall talking about Potter's house, saying there was a fidelius charm on it. Any wizard that arrived at the house and entered without stopping the charm arrived in an empty house, but as a trusted member of the Order of the Phoenix, he had the code.  
  
No one could fool Severus Snape.  
  
He knew what to do.  
  
He entered the house without a sound and immediately made his way to the first floor. He stopped in front of what he knew was the master bedroom's closed door and smiled wickedly as he opened it.  
  
"Dormus Totalus," he hissed.  
  
He repeated the same spell at Dudley's room before making his way up to the last bedroom, the one in which he would find Harry. His one way ticket back to Voldemort.  
  
His wand out, he turned the door's handle and pushed it open. He had expected everything than what he heard next.  
  
"Finally, Snape," Harry sighed. "Could you be any slower?"  
  
The light in the room turned on as he stepped in. Harry Potter was sitting on his bed in white pajamas, simply staring at him with his emerald green eyes.  
  
Severus froze.  
  
How could he have possibly known? His plan was flawless! Was this just a trick? What was happening? Did he see him out the window? Did he know what he was about to do?  
  
"We did practice Occlumency together," Harry simply said, as if reading his thoughts. "What?" he added, staring at Severus' dumbfounded look. "You thought I only practiced with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's minds?"  
  
Severus suddenly felt completely trapped. What if he had warned Dumbledore? Or even worst, the Ministry? Harry slowly got up from his bed and made the two steps that kept him at an arm's length from his potions master. He was completely aware that there was a wand directly pointed at his throat.  
  
"And now I know," Harry whispered, "that what I saw in your mind was completely true... and that your loyalty is worth nothing. You are just a traitor on both sides. You just think of your little person and the benefits."  
  
"Impedimenta!" Severus yelled, sending the young man flying into the wall behind him. There was now a big bash in the wall, marking the spot where he had collided. Harry sat under it, sighing as he brushed the flaked paint and dust off his shoulders.  
  
"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" he said calmly. "I learned it the hard way too."  
  
"Get up," Severus spat, uncomfortable in front of the boy's equanimity.  
  
"So, Snape," Harry said, chucking under his breath as he got to his feet, still brushing his pajamas. "You must be really scared of Voldemort's comeback to come up to me, and wait... to kidnap me?"  
  
"Don't aggravate me, Potter," Severus hissed. "Follow me and I'll reduce the torture later on."  
  
"Of course you will," Harry chuckled. "But you forget," he said, this time with frightening maturity. "I'm Harry Potter."  
  
For some reason, Severus pictured Harry the previous year, practicing the killing curse on mice and spiders in the middle of the night, on his knees in the middle of an empty classroom.  
  
"Yes," Severus simply said. "It's precisely why I'm 'kidnapping' you."  
  
"I know," Harry simply said, a glimpse of a smile on his face. "I saw it in your mind."  
  
". . . Aren't you going to fight back?" Severus asked tentatively.  
  
"No," Harry said casually. "Can I take my things before we leave?"  
  
Severus was dumbfounded. Why wasn't the boy resisting? He had been almost dreaming of casing the cruciatus curse on him, just to prove that he was not joking and that he could control the famous Harry Potter.  
  
"I don't understand," Severus mumbled.  
  
"It's quite simple, actually," Harry said with the same calm voice. "I need to face Voldemort one day or another, and you just show up here to bring me to him. We both win."  
  
"This isn't a game," Severus hissed, his wand still pointed towards the boy as he did his bags. "And you are taking this way to coolly. Stupefy!"  
  
The spell hit Harry in the chest and he fell on the floor with a thud. Severus walked over to his unconscious body, a curious look on his face. He would have never expected him to want to go to the Dark Lord.  
  
"Better be on my way then," Severus muttered under his breath, swishing his wand towards Harry's bag.  
  
The bag filled itself with useful items and flew at Severus' feet. The potions master grabbed it and turned towards Harry's sleeping form.  
  
He looked so serene, it was almost unbearable.  
  
"Mobilicorpus," he muttered, making his body follow him as he walked out of the house.  
  
The rest of the chapters will be about Severus making his way up to Voldemort's location, bringing Harry along with him, until they finally face him.  
  
Please review! You have absolutely no idea how appreciated it would be! 


	2. chapter 2

Thank you to all my reviewers! I added a few paragraphs in chapter 1 about what Dumbledore thinks about Harry and how Sirius joined the 'good side' because I was told it wasn't extremely clear, so feel free to go back and read that part.  
  
Sorry for the time I took to update, though :S:S:S:S  
  
Chapter 2:  
  
Harry opened his eyes and blinked a few times, not moving from his place, staring at the ceiling above him, recognizing that he was definitely not in his room at Privet Drive. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and looked around him.  
  
He was still in his pajamas, lying on a wooden floor. He could see that he was in some sort of magical cage, bars of white light forming a delimited area around him.  
  
"Snape?" he immediately called out, trying to get to his feet.  
  
"What?" Severus barked from the other side of the wall of white bars. "Shut up and stay still!"  
  
Harry made a few steps and looked through the bars of light, deciding it was best not to touch them. His potions master was sitting in a chair about four meters away from him, turning a spatula inside a cauldron that was boiling in a stone fireplace. Severus seemed extremely concentrated in what he was doing and completely ignored his hostage that just stared straight at him.  
  
Harry saw that they were both in a very small place. A closet and bed were placed next to the fireside, there was a small kitchen and a closed window to the right and a table with three chairs in the middle of the room. A door on his left leaded to a bathroom and another, on his right, probably went outside. On Harry's side, behind the bars, there was absolutely nothing. Not even a mattress on which he could have slept.  
  
Looking down at his clothes, he noticed that there were strange silver cuffs around his wrists and ankles.  
  
"What is this for?" he asked, pulling the cuffs.  
  
Severus turned around and watched as his prisoner proceeded in a succession of pathetic attempts to get rid of the cuffs.  
  
"Don't waste your time, they won't come off," he finally said, smiling softly.  
  
"What are they for?" Harry repeated curiously as he tugged on the cuffs.  
  
Severus sighed and stared at his prisoner in a disinterested way for a moment.  
  
"You can't run away with those on," he said. "You need to stay not more than ten meters away from me."  
  
"Or what?" Harry growled indifferently. "I'll drop to the floor and grow fur?"  
  
"No," Severus said in an unreasonably calm way. "You'll be begging to be close to me again."  
  
Harry smirked, pacing behind the bars of his prison as he shook his head.  
  
"Some sort of cruciatus curse?" he asked.  
  
Severus smiled evilly.  
  
"Just shut up," he said, turning back to his boiling potion, adding some powdered plants to his mix.  
  
There was a short moment of silence, broken by Harry's sigh.  
  
"You really are pathetic, Snape," Harry finally said, a serious look on his face. "So... going back to the Dark Lord. I hope he kills you before I fight him."  
  
Severus' grip on the spatula tightened but he didn't say anything, trying to concentrate on his work.  
  
"Or better," Harry went on. "Dumbledore shows up."  
  
"Potter, I gave you an order," he hissed. "You better shut up."  
  
"Rot in hell, Snape," Harry growled. "Just give me one chance, and I kill you, understand? I'm not at school anymore. I DON'T obey to you. I might be behind your bars right now but I would have NEVER arrived here if I hadn't let you take me at Privet Drive, so just fuck off."  
  
Severus was literally fuming.  
  
"Potter, you will learn not to mess with me," he hissed, placing the spatula on his chair as he got up, making a few steps away from him. "I am not who you think I am and I know more than you could ever imagine, so I suggest you cut the crap and stop not taking me seriously, because you are right," he went on, still walking away, "We are not at Hogwarts anymore, I am not your teacher, your are not my student, we are in the real world."  
  
He was now at about nine meters from Harry's cage, and still went on. He passed ten meters and stopped at the wall, leaning on it and watching Harry.  
  
The boy who lived yelled in suffering, his nails scratching his skin madly as he fell to the floor, screaming in agony. The blood flowing in his veins was like acid, his breathing was like fire and his heart filled itself with pain beyond pain. His skin was freezing, invisible knives were cutting through his limbs, the air around him felt like magma.  
  
Incredibly enough, he could still hear Severus' voice.  
  
"This is not the cruciatus curse," he was saying. "This spell is known as The Enslaver. Tell me Potter... how does it feel? I was told it was much worst than the cruciatus curse, even though it is much less popular because of its complexity."  
  
It was only at that moment that Harry knew what to do. "You'll be begging to be close to me again," Severus had said. Harry looked up at Severus' face and made a step forwards, pushing himself against the magic bars of his cell.  
  
Another flow of pain ran through him.  
  
He was yelling, screaming to him to get closer, to make it stop, to get rid of the bars so that he could scamper to his feet, but the pain did not end, it lasted forever, and Severus just watched as the Boy Who Lived begged.  
  
Finally, Severus walked forwards when the boy lost consciousness, less than ten minutes later. He pulled out his wand.  
  
"Incarcerate!" he whispered, making the bars of light disappear so he could walk to the boy's unmoving form.  
  
He kneeled to the floor and his fingers passed gently under the young man's chin, lifting his head up. Harry opened his eyes, sighed and stared into the eyes of his captor.  
  
"I think the message sunk in," Severus chipped almost merrily. "So, Harry, hopping that you will no longer underestimate me and that The Enslaver has marked you, we might live in something relatively close to harmony until we reach the Dark Lord."  
  
Unable to speak, Harry just stared into Severus' unblinking eyes until his head was thrown aside, his captor walking away as the bars of bright light reappeared behind him.  
  
But a particular bothersome fact troubled the Boy-Who-Lived.  
  
"Harry?" he whispered in an almost inaudible way. "He called me Harry?"  
  
Severus hadn't even realized that he had called the young man by his first name and was back to his cauldron, eyeing the now crimson liquid with mild satisfaction.  
  
Harry got into an upright position and crawled to the wall on which he leaned, watching his old potion master with unconcerned interest.  
  
He could still feel the pain slowly leaving his body but ignored it in the exact same way Snape was now ignoring his presence. Curiosity was eating him but he did not dare ask the man a few feet in front of him the questions that were on his mind. Why was he so keen of leaving Dumbledore's side? What had pushed him to do it? The simple fact that Voldemort was back to power, terrorizing everyone and killing innocent people? Why had he left in the first place, then? Why was he going back and forth from side to side? What was he scared of? He just seemed like a double-crosser by doing what he did, but where did his loyalty really lie? Did he have any at all? Nothing made sense.  
  
"Why did you hate my father?" he decided to ask, trying to engage a conversation that didn't involve name-calling.  
  
Severus turned around again, head tilted on one side, maybe a bit surprised to hear such a question in a moment like this.  
  
"Why do you hate Draco Malfoy?" he simply said. "It's the same thing. A few differences here and there, but its just that."  
  
"It had to be more seeing how you treated me for seven years," Harry replied.  
  
"Yes, maybe it was," the potions master said. "But nothing I would go blabbing on to you. You should only know that I would have killed him if the Dark Lord hadn't."  
  
"Of course you would have," Harry said, rolling his eyes.  
  
Snape glared at him but returned to his potion without a word.  
  
"Tomorrow we move on," he said after a long moment of silence.  
  
"Yeah. One step closer to your master's doom," the young man grumbled. "And one step closer to yours too."  
  
"We will see," Severus hissed.  
  
Why does Harry want to go back to the Dark Lord? Because he knows he has to fight him one day or another and wants to 'get it over with' (he's a bit disheartened, see). Severus shows up and wants to bring him to him, so he simply didn't fight back. 


End file.
